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The Governors Highway Safety Association has released an analysis of preliminary pedestrian fatality traffic data for the first six months of 2014. The study indicates deaths for the year are likely be be about the same as 2013, indicating slow progress with pedestrian safety efforts.

Ben Woolf, a star of American Horror Story: Freak Show, died this week in Los Angeles after being struck by an SUV. His death highlighted efforts by regulators and automakers to ramp up pedestrian safety efforts, though fatalities remain high.

Polaris issues a recall and stop-sale order for its Slingshot over two issues. Certain models might have been fitted with defective ball bearings in the steering column, failure of which could cause loss of steering. It's also possible that installed roll-hoops don't meet company performance specs. Both problems will be fixed free-of-charge.

The latest in a string of impressive new technologies from Jaguar Land Rover alerts the driver to potential hazards from pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycle riders through a series of lights, chimes and vibrations.

Having been cut loose from OnStar, Verizon just announced its Verizon Vehicle service, which provides some OnStar-like features for the 200 million cars on US roads that don't have any sort of built-in connectivity.

General Motors is recalling 83,572 SUVs from the 2011 and 2012 model years over a potential ignition lock actuator issue. The pool of affected vehicles could also include SUVs from 2007-2014 that have already been repaired, but with defective parts.

The Audi A3 and S3 sedans aced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's New Car Assessment Program tests, each scoring five stars overall. The A3 sedan is also a Top Safety Pick+ according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Volvo will demonstrate a new safety innovation at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas next month that enables vehicle-to-cyclist communication to warn both a driver and a bicycle rider about an impending collision. It was developed in partnership with POC, a maker of safety gear for gravity sports athletes, and Ericsson, and works through a smartphone app and the Volvo cloud.

For the first time since 2009, motorcycle fatalities decreased year-on-year in 2013: the Fatality Analysis Reporting System compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counted 4,668 motorcyclist deaths last year compared to 4,896 in 2012.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is releasing its annual list tallying of the scores for the latest model year vehicles to see how they compare to last year. Judging by the agency's evaluations, the numbers look quite positive. Seventy-one vehicles earned either the Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ rating so far in its evaluations, compared to 39 at this point last year. Among the latest winners, there have been 33 TSP+ awards and 38 TSP medalists.

A June investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has led to a full recall of the 2005 Dodge Ram, after investigators discovered a loose pinion nut could cause the rear axle to seize. 280,000 vehicles are affected globally, while 257,000 are in the US market.

Sweden's Teknikens Värld has a reputation for being very persnickety when it comes to auto safety testing, and its latest catch is the Mondeo Titanium Estate 2.0 TDCi 150 bhp S6 MPS (basically a station wagon variant of the Fusion). In addition to the model's mile-long name, it has another problem according to the Swedes, because its weight on the scales does not equal the official numbers for the vehicle.

The South Dakota Office of Highway Safety just can't take its own suggestive joke. The government organization recently started a public service campaign with the far too easily mocked name Don't Jerk and Drive. It was supposed to educate drivers on how to handle hitting snowy or icy patches of road by not overcorrecting the steering wheel, but the double entendre was deemed too racy for the roads.

A bad indicator that could convince customers that affected cars are in park, even when they aren't, has pushed Acura to issue a stop-sale for the V6-equipped TLX sedan. The company has already alerted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the potential safety defect.